Making the Most of Storage Shelves

Making the most of storage shelves helps your business respond to increased capacity needs
By Kelly Shetsky, Anchor/Reporter Making the most of storage shelves will help you deal with the evolving demands of your business. It's important to add shelves and storage solutions as inventory increases and at a price your company can afford. You can customize most commercial shelving systems to fulfill any business need whether you need food storage shelves or warehouse shelving or you require plastic shelving or metal shelving.

The opportunities are endless when using storage shelves in your business. To make the most of your storage space, the shelving you choose can help you take advantage of the space you have and good units also allow for easy additions as your needs expand. When making the most of storage shelves in your business, try to:

1. Make storage shelves work for you by customizing them to achieve optimum inventory control.

2. Add extra warehouse shelving to existing units to obtain more space.

3. Choose heavy duty shelving systems to ensure longer life and get the most out of your investment.

Optimize product flow with appropriate storage shelving

Make the most of your storage shelving by choosing systems that fit the turnover rate of your inventory. Use a drive-in pallet racking system of metal shelving, if you're storing items with low turnover. These systems make the best use of space, but are difficult to get to, so you don't want to put fast moving merchandise here. A push-back system is great for medium-turnover inventory. The pallets at the back move forward when you remove the front pallet. A pallet flow system uses gravity to move pallets to the other side in a controlled manner for quicker moving merchandise.
Try:  Steel King and Mecalux both sell numerous pallet racking warehouse shelving systems that respond to your company's inventory needs within shipping and receiving or warehouse areas. GlobalSpec can customize your rack system for you. Simply answer some questions about your storage needs and this company can create the storage shelves you require. Rand Materials Handling and Packaging Supplies also offers custom shelving to fit your business' specific needs.

Increase inventory options by adding layers of long lasting shelving with bins

Add extra heavy-duty shelving units to your warehouse or storage room as need increases. You can buy metal shelving, plastic storage shelves or wood units. If you have loose parts that are hard to shelve, consider using shelving with bin units. To save money and get the heavy duty shelving you need, you can also look into used metal shelving.
Try:  AnytimeProducts offers a variety of bulk shelving for heavy-duty use and even offers versatile high density steel shelving that includes various sized bins for storing everything from small parts to bulky items. Warehouse Rack Company offers a variety of used metal shelving. The Surplus Warehouse also offers variety of open and closed steel shelving for a more economical approach to your shelving needs.

Increase the load capabilities of shelving units

When opting for metal storage shelves, the best bet is to buy boltless shelves. They stand up better in industrial environments. If your current system handles medium-weight loads and you need it to do more, consider using boltless shelving to make the most of the load capacities of your storage shelves while ensuring the shelves are strong enough to provide a safe working environment.
Try:  Industrial Shelving Systems sells many sizes of boltless shelving with or without particle board decking that fits needs from simple backroom storage to vast record keeping storage systems. Buy heavy duty wire shelving starter units and add-on units from ATD-American. As your storage needs grow, so can your metal shelves as you easily add more shelves to the original storage shelf by either adding another shelf in a straight row or at a 90 degree angle for a corner shelf. Check out the heavy duty shelving comparison guide at Keysan to see what all it has to offer including load capacities and adjustability features of each of the different units available.

• Work with an industrial shelving specialist to plan, design and install your shelving system to get optimal results and help you truly make the most of your storage shelves.